Timeshare chaos in Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, blue sky and sea,

My timeshare company offered a $2,500 buyback but never paid me!

You’ve probably heard about the couple jailed in Mexico after filing numerous credit card chargebacks over timeshare fees. They reversed nearly $120,000 in charges from their timeshare company and advised others how to do it too.

Publicly.

The couple gave their awful exit advice on a Facebook group for disgruntled timeshare owners. However, they weren’t the only ones lurking in that community.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding pregnant passenger, Celebrity Reflection, cruise ship on the ocean, Cruise ship at sunset.

Celebrity Cruises denied boarding to me because I’m pregnant. What now?

First-time cruise passengers Marisa Vacca, her husband, and toddler couldn’t wait to board Celebrity Cruises Reflection last December. The family arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the night before embarkation and excitedly settled into their hotel. 

But then a heavily pregnant Marisa began skimming the Celebrity Cruises pre-boarding instructions, and her heart sank.

Bad behavior on cruise, Passengers misbehaving on cruise ship, Avoid poorly behavior passengers on your cruise, ruined cruise

Will your cruise be ruined by the bad behavior of fellow passengers?

You’ve likely seen the video of the Carnival passengers brawling in the Galveston, Texas, cruise port this week. Sadly, that footage, which shows a large group of cruisers assaulting each other as they disembarked from Jubilee, is not particularly shocking in 2025. Unfortunately, egregiously bad behavior among cruise ship passengers is becoming more commonplace. Should you be worried that the bad behavior of fellow passengers will ruin your next cruise?

Celebrity cruise, Celebrity Equinox, cruise ship on the ocean, Celebrity cruise passenger forgot passport

A Celebrity cruise passenger forgot her passport. FedEx made things even worse

As Sherry Warren and her husband prepared for their upcoming Celebrity cruise, she bought a colorful passport case. The little wallet was stylish and protective, with Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) blocking features. It would be the perfect way to carry their passports, Warren thought. 

And it surely would have – had she not forgotten the wallet with their passports inside when they left for the cruise.

Internet romance scams, job scams, scammers everywhere

I fell for an internet romance scam. Can anything be done now?

As she searched for a new job, love suddenly was in the air — or so Karen C. thought. But behind the inappropriate emails she received from her recruiter with carefully typed romantic promises lurked a scammer weaving a web of deceit.

Karen couldn’t believe her luck. She thought she had found a dream job and a romantic partner, but the reality was much, much different.

UTOvacation offered trips to Beijing for $494 per person, Colorful house in Beijing

Is UTOvacation a scam tour operator? This ex-customer says “yes!”

UTOvacation sold Shih (Richard) Liu and his wife a once-in-a-lifetime trip to China and Japan. But Liu, like many other customers of this particular tour operator, now says he’s the victim of a scam. Nearly a year after collecting full payment from the Lius, the company changed the contract and added new fees.

The couple maintains that the tour operator pulled this bait and switch without any notification or follow-up. But worse than that deception was what UTOvacation did next – also without informing the couple.

Carnival Cruise Line passenger gets scammed, Zelle scam, scammers everywhere, cruise scam, Carnival Freedom cruise ship

This Carnival cruise ship passenger lost $3,556 to a Zelle scam

Cruise ship passengers beware: Never use Zelle to pay for a cruise, excursion or any other part of your vacation. If you do, you could end up like L. Williams, a former Carnival Cruise Line customer. 

A scammer pretending to be a cruise consultant tricked Williams into paying for her last cruise with Zelle. That set off a chain reaction that left her $3,556 in debt – and banned indefinitely from the cruise line.